Activated carbon has found use in various applications such as purification of air, water, automotive exhaust, etc. While microporous structure carbon (pore diameter less than 20 angstroms and BET surface area of 1000-3000 m.sup.2 /g) are suitable for many applications such as gas phase adsorption e.g. light hydrocarbons and H.sub.2 S, some applications require larger porosity in the carbon for optimum adsorption and/or catalytic activity. For example, removal of larger molecular size pollutants such as humine, protein, etc., in addition to conventional gaseous pollutants, such as hydrocarbons, or certain kinds of pesticides require specific surface properties and pore size distributions. Activated carbon monoliths, whether in the form of a coating on a substrate, or a shaped structure of activated carbon, have found use in various applications especially where durability is required, such as in automotive exhaust purification. For these kinds of structures to be used in chemical processing applications and liquid phase filtration applications, mesoporosity is sometimes required such as for adequate catalyst loading and for facilitating chemical reaction kinetics and filtering processes.
Therefore, a method of making mesoporous carbon, especially in conjunction with monolithic carbon forms, is highly desirable and an advancement in the art.
The present invention provides such forms of mesoporous carbon and method of making.